A humble tribute in my window. Never forget.

Tiananmen Square 1989-2009

“Until the engineer performs a poetic approximation of the nature, he mustn’t operate on it.”

JAFO (José Antonio Fernandez Ordóñez)

These days I’m working among other things [that maybe will make me implode] in a series about Spanish civil engineering in the XX Century through the major engineers. It will be enclosed with some exhibition panels that keep on the inner walls of my Civil Engineers School in order to familiarize the students with the spirit of our profession.

But, as the first speaker will be Ramiro Aurín, the current editor in chief of Ingeniería y Territorio magazine, we’ll be lucky he came with another, beauty exhibition about the 20 years of this magazine Enjoy it if you can!

(Coruña Civil Engineers School, floor 0)

Some NGO’s are organizing meetings in cities all around Spain(hazteoir.org, es) on the next Sunday, against the new law that the Spanish govern is trying to aprove about abortion.

Even when last year the number of abortions was extremely high (140,000), the current law is clear: abortion is an exception. It will change with the new law, it will convert abortion in a right.

Spanish govern justify in an experts committe. But in fact their committee was made up mainly with members of groups in favor of abortion and abortists clinics businessmen. There was not a real social discussion, and, of course, there was not a real scientific debate.

In positive, read Samuel’s history. Photo copyright by Michael Clancy (fair use, I think).

The last days at the Conference were intense, so I’ll write about them at home again.

The second day began with RMS’s speech about patents. We arrived a bit late, but I can certify it was a very good speech again. After it, Richard sold by (benefic) auction his book “Free Software, Free Society” and a cuddly GNU. Gonzalo had a moment of foolness, and now that GNU is now called “the CartoÑu”. Tomorrow will be introduced in society

After a coffee, I began to jump from a session to another again, looking for the most interesting papers to my work. Barranco and Alvarez from CEDEX showed the power of GRASS in hydrology investigation. Gomariz, Moreno, Cánovas and Alonso from University of Mucia explained the architecture they built to create a GIS to investigate hydric resources. They where the free software radicals in the conference, I think the only (LaTeX) beamer I saw in the three days. I was happy to have concurred in technologic decisions for several solutions in CartoLab with them.

The last speeches for me in the morning where about the wonderful world of  OGC services: David Jonglez from Camptocamp France SAS talked about MapFish; Fonts and Vidal related the evolution of Vissir2, the web visor of the Institut Cartográfic de Catalunya.

After having lunch Gonzalo gave a great speech standing out the importance of developing general free GIS clients to specific pourposes in order to reduce the time of cartographic works. Victor Olaya made the CartoLab in protagonist again with the announce of Nacho going to be part of the
Sextante developing team.

The rest hours to the night were my approach to OSGeo foundation and its Spanish-American chapter. I’ll write about it later. I only can say by now it was really exciting

Great part of attendants went home that night. Gonzalo, Nacho and me ended the night soon at the Camelot Irish pub with Victor Olaya and more people of the conference.

We changed the stage on Friday. The workshops where developed in the Facultat de Lletres of Universitat de Girona. It’s a restored Gothic monastery. I think they could be done a better integrated work, but it’s still a pretty environment.

Carlos Dávila developed a good workshop on Quantum GIS, a GIS client based on GRASS. I never had worked with a GIS program in such depth. Gonzalo runned out to the train station because he must flight to Asturias the same day. In the other side, the rest of CartoLab team had lunch in the central court of the building, under cypresses shadow.

The culmination for me arrived afternoon with Lorenzo Becchi driving a workshop on OpenLayers. I was tired, of course. But I would resist four hours more learning about that wonderful libraries.

That night Nacho and me had dinner at König and we returned to La Lola pub to celebrate those days :-D(I think Catalonians go to bed too soon, but that night we were too tired to worry about it ;-))

Maybe the III Jornadas SIG Libre had the geek level I would like. But it was in fact the cause of it sucess: everybody felt confortable and everybody could find interesting things for their business. I remembered sometimes GPUL’s CTSL’05

Today I’m analysing some documentation I received into the official bag of the conference. I found a very interesting book: “Complete migration to open source software in the Valencian Regional Ministry of Infraestructure and Transport”. It’s a example to follow, as far I could read by now.

It seems next year there won’t be the 4th edition. Why? Because FOSS4G 2010 will celebrate in Barcelona. It is the greatest event about geospatial free software in the world, and Irene Compte,  Lluis Vicens and Lorenzo Becci will work in it. So, I’m sure it’ll be a new sucess, and I
wish to be there

It’s 4 a.m. I’m trying to write slowly in the darkness because Gonzalo it’s trying to sleep. He will read his paper tomorrow.

Today started the Conference. It seems the usual professional Conference in a four-star hotel, but there is a bit of unformality air. It’s not a geek conference at all (otherwise somebody would burn with gas because the wireless net continuous problems), there are people from different disciplines and organistations (government, university, enterprise, non-profit foundations, even lone developers).

In the opening we could hear some philosophical conferences (web 3.0 gaaaaaa!!!!)  and the launching of some projects related to the GIS world (Simon Jirka on 52º North about  Sensor Web Enablement, and Chris Holmes on OpenGeo about geospatial web services).

After lunch the most technical speeches began. Nacho opened the fire in his session with the releasing of SDIAnalyzer. He beared the network problems too, so he sadly couldn’t improve his speech with a fair demo. Then a pair of speeches followed about Catalonian and Andalusian governments apps around web geospatial services to their citizens.

There was an interesting discussion after the coffe about free (as in freedom) (spatial) data. Once again, governments and non-profit initiatives like OSM exposed their different points of view.

After sunset we went out for a walk with a tourist guide. We could admire how a city was built since the Roman Empire (Via Augusta crosses the city drawing the cardus) to nowadays. It was a pity the cathedral was closed. It’s the Gothic cathedral with the longest span in width nave in the world. We could read in those old stones some history about intolerance of Catholics against Jewish (modern era) and Communist and Anarchists against Catholics (Spanish II Republic and Civil War).

Finally we went to have dinner to a nice restaurant where we eat some typical  dishes. After it, around 100 GISers crossed in the night the city to find an opened pub. We found a pretty pub where two guitarists played a gypsy concert. I got a bit sad during a moment because I lost my session at the Portiño, but we really got fun dancing

(Of course I’m uploading some photos in my gallery.)

And… in four hours… we’ll sing “Join us now and share the software…”

Two hours ago my buddies at work Gonzalo, Nacho and me arrived in Girona, Cataluña, North Spain. We will attend to the  III Jornadas de SIG Libre (3rd Free GIS Conference). CartoLab will read two papers, release one application, and show a work-in-progress about information management of water projects by  ESF (Engineers Without Borders-Galicia) in Honduras.

I haven’t been in Girona before. It seems a pretty, calm city.We arrived very late, and we were lucky finding the only nice pub where we could eat some pizza and beer :-)I’ll write more tomorrow… (I hope)

“Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood“

Yukio Mishima. Runaway horses, 1969

Finally after fourth months, I have an approved proposal of final degree project. It has been a hard struggle because my first proposal (a cultural-artistic complex I had been conceiving the last years) was rejected. I could explain how absurd is the law in Spain about professions and their scopes, but I merely say you only can do what the law forces you, not what you are ready for. Hackers won’t survive

(It was deeply sad to  realize how civil engineers put artificial limits to the Civil Engineering knowledge development too).

About the project, I’ll draft a intermodal (metropolitan rail bus) station at Betanzos, a strongly medieval city in Galicia betwen the big cities of the region, Coruña and Ferrol. I’ll try to design a Gothic inspirated but with actual concrete forms (economical, functional) structure for it.

I think I’ll get along with Mr. Eduardo Toba, the civil engineer, and lawyer, and poet that will supervise my project. Let’s cross the fingers…

The week before Akademy I attended to a course about a Civil Engineering tool called Istram Ispol. It tries to be a killer-app for road and railway projects. It really has a very interesting lot of features, but I really was dissapointed in the second hour of the course, and I was progressively getting angry to the end.

It’s not (only)  a problem it’s not free software, I knew it before registration. The GUI is absolutely horrific. Istram was developed originally in the princpilpe of 90’s for Unix platform, then they jumped to Windows (and they are proud of this action ¿?). So it has now a GUI built mainly in VisualBasic with important wreckage of something similar to X/Motif. Different menus behave in different way with the same actions on them, even there are buttons that behave in different way depending on the point where you press on with the mouse. And the documentation is so poor it’s near imposible to the mean user doing something useful without a training course.

AkademyEs recovered me from the trauma and brought me back the faith in the existence of people capable of build good GUI’s for daily human tasks. That week I didn’t get tired of repeating the same  phrase: “this UI seems programmed by drunken with cheap vodka monkeys”.

GPUL was candidate to organize next summer the international Akademy and Guadec. We lost in the competition in favor of Canarias Islands candidate. But we won at least the competition to organize the Akademy-ES last November.

It was a chance to meet again with part of people that came to Coruña to Guademy I. We had three days of high level technical speechs and discussions about KDE in general (with some pleasing exceptions like Ismael Pernas from Dygra Films showing us the work of rendering process with free software).

For me, Akademy-ES was a chance to break my own record of how many hours I can survive without sleep, of course (that Saturday night I went to the Solidarity Party). But Akademy made the desire of taste KDE grow in me. Last months I worked hard with Gnome at the ESF (Engineers Without Borders-Galicia) office in Coruña, and now I began to install KDE in some desktops at the Cartolab.

And no. I have not forgotten the faith in the command line. But I need a soft, beauty approach to free OS’s for the people surrounding me.

Since October, 30th I’m the new president of GPUL. It has been necessary because Emilio went some months to investigate at INRIA in Grenoble. He needed holidays too because the great,, amazing work he made leading GPUL the last three years. I only wish I’ll be able to maintain the modernization he began in the Association. It’ll be a challenge for José Millán to replace to our panzer against administration, Chema, as secretary.

With the new configuration we’ll face next months the celebration of the 10 years of GPUL along this academic year. We’ll try to reduce the mean age in the Association in order to reach the 15th anniversary

I hadn’t written about the Portiño since Summer, I think. I waited to know how was the evolution this year. I can write now it’s good and improving: the rookies of last year aren’t now rookies and they got the respect and love of the children. We have new volunteers that are doing a wonderful work with them. Lots of fresh ideas come from everybody and we try to run them. I have a personal target too: I want they learn to express themselves better on the paper.

The traditional Solidarity Party in the final November to get funds to projects with children of the OCV was a total success again. Adolfo, the veteran co-ordinator of the Bañobre project, is the main responsible of this success.

In December we took part with the people of the Portiño in a protest against racism against our loved town. The motto was “Portiño: 47 años de convivencia de payos y gitanos” (Portiño: 47 years of white and gipsy people living together).

And near to Christmas we celebrate a party with the children. Everybody, children, parents and volunteers got a fun time

Now we’ll try to finish these months with one activity outside the town…

I really love this game

I know this blog is a bit abandoned this months, but I am very, very busy.

I begin to write because I wanted to share interesting news for the people arround, and to let my friends know about me. I failed at both points, and I’m grateful for the interest of people that asked me for it.

(Sanchi, I know one poem in two months is not much, but it expressed perfectly my mind. Add to it some songs by The Cure.)

So I’ll try now to update it again.

From the classic Greek epi-phanos, “light that reveals”. It’s Christ’s light coming to the world revealing love in our hearts that we try to bury.

(Nothing to do with the wild shopping to forget what unhappy we are)

What though the radiance
which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flower,
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering;
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.

William Wordsworth, 1807

Last year I studied Special Foundations. Part of a paper about the jet grouting technique that allowed me pass the subject is now in my personal page (sorry, only in Spanish by now).

Some weeks ago I wrote about my work at the Territorial Studies Lab. After two months of a interesting, funny stage I left the Lab. Two doors from there, the CartoLab needed a geek person with some knowledge about GNU/Linux systems and Civil Engineering. I hope to be up to my new bosses’ expectations.

As it’s name points to, CartoLab develops cartography works, especially GIS related works. I think I’ll enjoy the next months

Imagine you live in a house where the garage is full of garbage. The living room has leaking water. The mattress is old and it is invaded by fleas. Dead rats descompose in the attic. The kitchen is black because burning and it has an old, dangerous gas stove.

And it happens since decades. But you look to your brilliant bathroom with marble bathtub and high-tech japanese WC. And you think it’s all right.

Global crisis NOW? Let’s be serious, please.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear, their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Lord Byron, 1814

The kernel of Christian religion is love. But you usually plug in it some non-free modules that get more functions to overcome the dayly dificulties. It can happen because you have need it to survive, but usually it happens because you’re lazy to fight the ambient surrounding you.

These modules taint your free kernel. Even when you don’t have a free alternative, it is an unethical action.

Reverse-engineer your hardware around if you need it. Hack your life. Purify your love. Be free.